The present disclosure relates to a storage medium storing therein a storage device usage management program that utilizes a limited-life non-volatile storage device such as a solid state drive (SSD), and an electronic device including the storage device usage management program.
Hard disk drives (HDDs) have been widely used as non-volatile storage devices in image forming apparatuses and other electronic devices. In recent years, due to technical advancement in a semiconductor field and a cost reduction of semiconductors, some electronic devices use a non-volatile storage device (hereinafter, may be referred to as a semiconductor drive) using a semiconductor such as an SSD or a NAND flush device. The semiconductor drive, which needs shorter reading time than the HDD, is useful. However, many semiconductor drives have a limit on the number of times of writing therein and have a limited life. That is, the semiconductor drives cannot eternally be used, and thus the limit on the number of times of writing therein needs to be taken into consideration in use of the semiconductor drives.
For the reason as above, a certain image forming apparatus calculates the number of times of writing by obtaining the number of processed pages and the number of times of execution of the processing. When the number of times of writing reaches or exceeds a threshold value, the image forming apparatus notifies so.
Another image forming apparatus suspends writing into a limited-life non-volatile storage device when the number of defective blocks in the limited-life non-volatile storage device reaches a specific value.